


Cycle of Obsession

by Millixi77



Series: Yandere AU [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/F, Oblivious Tsumugi Shirogane, Yandere, Yandere Kaede Akamatsu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-05 16:58:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Millixi77/pseuds/Millixi77
Summary: Tsumugi just loves every single thing about Kaede. Her smile, her laughter, how kind she is... as far as Tsumugi Shirogane is concerned, Kaede Akamatsu is a goddess.A goddess who could never notice her as a friend, thoughtless of as a girlfriend...(Or so she thought.)





	1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

Tsumugi smiled, feeling warmth rise up in her chest as she remembered the first time she'd been able to have a meaningful conversation with Kaede. Kaede was so, so happy, cheerful and nice in a way that just made her heart pulse with warmth and her brain tingle with excitement. 

She would be the first one to admit that she had fallen for the pianist hard and fast, and wasn't going to stop falling anytime soon. 

Kaede was… she was luminous, both figuratively and literally. Small pink sparkles like glitter trailed her everywhere she went, and some sort of natural light shone from within her, making her look even more radiant and beautiful. She stood out from all the rest not just in her talent, but with her beauty. Everyone else was either dull, with a complete lack of light emanating from them or too dim for her to bother truly acknowledging them. They were all pathetic ants, as far as she was concerned. 

The only one that mattered was Kaede. 

In fact, she might have to thank her father for transferring her to this useless school after all, where people were mindless sheep half of the time, moving as if they were being manipulated by some sort of awful scriptwriter, doing nothing meaningful. They were all extras, background characters that she couldn't care less about. 

Only Kaede mattered here. 

She always felt so happy whenever she saw the bright flash of long blonde hair come into view, or her gorgeous violet eyes… Kaede was so beautiful, so painfully beautiful, that Tsumugi sometimes felt like crying because of how plain she was in comparison. She'd had no idea why Kaede had decided to keep talking to her, after that near-disastrous first meeting where she'd fallen and stumbled over her words, barely being able to remain coherent as she'd rambled out some sort of half-assed compliment about how similar Kaede looked to the protagonist of the new space-themed anime that had begun airing. 

As soon as the words had tumbled out of her stammering lips, she'd wanted to run all the way back home and rinse her mouth with mouthwash until her it felt sore. Or better, drink it and make herself sick so she wouldn't have to face what she'd thought would be cruel, mocking laughter. 

But instead, Kaede had smiled brightly, and said that she loved the series and appreciated the compliment. 

Tsumugi had felt like her heart had thrown itself out of her chest and that her brain was resting inside a large tub of fizzy soda instead of cerebrospinal fluid. Her blood vessels no longer contained blood, but helium, that made her feel as if she was floating even as her senses told her she was firmly affixed to her seat. 

He mouth felt like it was full of hot pepper as she started spewing out all the information she knew about the series, as well as her opinions, her predictions and theories, how she hoped the show would go, what she thought of the voice actors, what she thought of the company producing the anime… her voice had taken a mind of its own, and her brain was too busy on cloud nine to even stop and think. 

The best part was that, instead of getting weirded out or telling her to stop, Kaede seemed just as into the series as she was, and before long they had fallen head first into a lively discussion about the anime. 

Tsumugi swore that she had ascended in that moment, and that either her heart had stopped beating, or that it was beating a mile a minute. She'd felt like she was on top of the world, that the stars had aligned and smiled upon her, that fate had finally decided to turn a few odds in her favor. 

To put it succinctly, she'd been over the moon. 

At least, she had been, until the discussion had been prematurely ended at the sound of someone's chair soosily screeching against the floor. 

Both she and Kaede had looked back to see Shuuichi looking as if his life had ended. People have voiced their alarm and concern, but he didn't seem to hear any of it, rushing out of the classroom as if Satan himself had set his shoes on fire. 

The discussion had been ruined after that, and she had felt devastated. Curse Shuuichi for ruining this opportunity for her! The one time she had actually managed to say something apart from a simple greeting or inane discussion about classwork was when he decided to have a crisis! 

Damn him. 

She'd been ready to melt under the weight of her sadness, to find an opportunity to excuse herself and run to a deserted corner of the school and scream to the high heavens about how unfair this all was, when she felt someone gently touch her arm. She'd jolted, looking up like a deer in the headlights, to see Kaede's concerned gaze looking at her. 

“Don't worry, Tsumugi… Shuuichi should be fine. Maybe he just got some bad news from home and overreacted slightly, or something similar to that.”

Tsumugi wanted to both rejoice and scream in fury at that moment. She must have lost control of her facial expression for a few seconds back there and Kaede thought she was upset because of that worm! 

She forced herself to nod meekly, and divert her gave to the ground. 

“That was… honestly a little scary. Shuuichi's one of the calmest people in class; what could have made him react like that?” Probably something along the lines of her strangling his sorry ass to death later on, honestly. 

“He should be fine, don't worry,” Kaede said, her voice taking up the soft cadence of someone consoling someone else. “He's a detective, remember? He should be able to sort himself out just fine,” she said, squeezing Tsumugi’s arm slightly, in an effort to reassure her. 

Tsumugi felt like an electric shock had passed over her in that one second of slightly deeper contact. Kaede had actually touched her! Her heart felt like it was performing cartwheels in her chest, and she struggled to stop a large smile from overtaking her face. 

“I hope so,” she'd said, looking up slightly. 

Kaede had smiled at her reassuringly, and in that moment, Tsumugi swore that she looked like an angel. 

“I know so.”

Those three words had sent Tsumugi world into a swirling void of happiness. Kaede was always so confident and strong, she always knew just what to say to reassure people, and even though this was just an act, she couldn't help but appreciate Kaede's caring nature. 

She felt herself smile involuntarily at the sight and she swore that, for a split second, Kaede's eyes had lit up with glee. But as soon as it was there, it wasn't, and Tsumugi wondered if she had imagined it. 

They eventually lapsed into a companionable near-silence, talking softly, even as the rest of the class seemed to be abuzz with worry. 

She hadn't cared for them. All she'd kept in mind was that Kaede still wanted to talk to her, even despite that nonsense the detective boy had pulled for no reason. 

And that had been enough to satisfy her. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsumugi recounts all the events that have happened to her. She worries as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned... and would you have thought that watching YouTube videos while writing slows you down? I just realized that, lmao, oof. 
> 
> If this chapter seems disjointed and/or convoluted, my half-absent mind is the reason why, and I apologize in advance.
> 
> Now, enough of my ramblings and on with the actual story!

**CHAPTER TWO**

It had simultaneously been one of the best and worst days of her life. It had been the best day in the sense that she'd finally, _finally_ been able to talk to Kaede like a normal human being for once in her life, and the fact that Kaede actually seemed to enjoy talking with her! 

But that nonsense with Shuuichi had happened, and not only that, but the sprinklers had malfunctioned! She was barely able to bask in the glory of the fact that Kaede had actually communicated with her, and she hated it.

No one knew what had gone wrong, either. It could have been either a prank gone wrong, or some sort of one-in-a-million malfunction, but all she knew was that they’d been sent home early that day. 

She had wanted to curse Shuuichi that day, because it had put a wrench in her plans to try and talk to Kaede more that day. Instead, she’d had to waste her valuable time telling her parents why she had to come home early. To put it lightly, she’d been pissed. 

And then they’d been incredibly overbearing and clingy for the rest of the week, It had been annoying, and the only saving grace for that week was that she was able to talk to Kaede every day after that fiasco. The fact that Kaede even remembered her after that fiasco was something that she took to be a miracle in and of itself. 

However… things had changed after that incident. They wouldn't be immediately noticeable to most people, but to her it was a significant shift in the events of her life. 

But first, she wanted to think of everything that had led to the change. You couldn’t have a proper story without sufficient buildup, after all. That would be a criminal thing to do.

Or maybe it  _ should  _ be a criminal thing to do. No matter; that was a daydream for another time.

The entirety of this little tidal wave of changes stretched since before high school had started. A bit cliche, but… of she was honest, a large portion of her life could be written off like that. 

People tended to forget her a lot. It was like she was a background character in some sort of anime, made from a bland, standard cookie-cutter template and jammed into the background of everything else, acting as background filler for everyone else. Everyone else seemed to have  _ something  _ going on in their lives. They had dreams and motivations as well as people who cared for what they had to say. They had something tangible, something that could be felt, and even seen in the way they interacted with each other.

They had  _ something _ .

And she had nothing.

In the real world, she was naught but a background character who the storyboarders seemed to keep around for no apparent reason. They didn’t know what to do with her, yet they still continued leaving her in the background like some sort of running joke. She would hear all sorts of things about what people were planning on doing later that day, or how they were doing currently, or talking wistfully about their future.

And all she could do was sit there, silent, an unwanted overhearer.

Real life held very little for her. With absent-minded parents who seemed to be tired to their bones at the best of times and frantic workaholics at worst, it was safe to say that her home life interactions were even more barren than those she had at school. They almost never bothered checking on her, and for good reason. 

It wasn’t like their plain blur jane would turn into a punk overnight or something. That only happened in bad television shows to add unnecessary conflict. Luckily, whoever seemed to be running this world didn’t have taste which was that trashy.

Instead, she was mainly left at home with unfettered WiFi access. That had opened the floodgates for anime and manga, and consequently, a large part of her world.

Binge-watching different animes and binge-reading mangas day in and day out had probably done a number on her mind. As the world had thought her dull before, so she looked down upon it. How boring and unnecessary it was now! Who needed the real world when you could drown yourself in almost innumerable fictional ones? Worlds that were so fantastical, filled with characters who were even more vibrant than the people she knew in real life, living vicariously through them, 

Discovering anime and manga had been a dream come true, and she was around fifty-eight percent sure that the only good thing her parents had done had been getting internet for the house. Ungrateful thinking? Oh, most definitely! But it wasn’t like the opinion of a background character mattered anyway.

At first, she’d dove headfirst into those two pastimes with unrivaled vigor, consuming the content almost as quickly as it was produced, and spewing half-mad ramblings about them on various message boards with like-minded people. 

Surprisingly, her ramblings were not only coherent in the eyes of others, but worthy of their continued consumption and interaction. So she kept watching and reading and theorizing and making whatever fan-content she could, and the responses had kept on coming in like a powerful tide, making her feel lightheaded with giddiness and excitement. 

At last, people who didn’t immediately overlook her! Finally, people who understood her; who even heard what she said, and responded! People who didn’t know how plain and boring she was in real life, and thought she was an exciting, interesting person who was not only interested in the same things they were, but witty and smart as well! No more was she a mere background character, but now she was the main character of her own story! It had been such an addicting, beautiful experience.

She’d never wanted to let it go.

…

… 

She didn’t know when she’d first started seeing the pink sparkles in her room.

All she knew was that she’d gotten used to seeing them litter its floor; had gotten used to seeing them flowing over once she booted up her laptop screen and went onto her favorite fansites.

The pink sparkles that she booted her phone were so overwhelming that she could barely use her phone at school for fear of her branded as some sort of lunatic. She didn’t know what the sparkles were, really. All she knew was that as soon as something became the source of her attention, they started appearing around it.

(That was the precise reason that no matter how many times her parents complained about her manga collection, that she didn’t get rid of them. Seeing those pink sparkles all over her room, scattered across them, bleeding pink into the very atmosphere of it…)

(She couldn’t give up the immense feeling of satisfaction and longing that it always struck her with. She would never give it up. Never.)

The world had started to look bleached of color, like a permanent light grey overlay was cast on it. Only things with the pink sparkles around them would have their normal saturation. It was… a little odd, but very convenient, especially during the times when she didn’t have her glasses. It was easier for her to see the important objects, even when they were blurred thanks to her poor vision. It was nice to see a few bright, blurry objects than to see the entire room at full saturation.

Honestly, she wondered how people managed to live like that. Horrendous was what she’d call it. Sure, she could look at the few colorful things in her life for hours upon hours without getting bored, but it was easier to adjust to real life when you were able to see how needlessly bland and uninspired it was.

It almost made her want to dive back into her imaginary worlds instantly. Almost. She didn’t need poorer vision than she had now, after all. Besides, a little suspense was necessary in order for the story to pack its full punch!

She’d learned all of that quickly.

And thus, her life had been cemented into that same routine after years of repetition.

Wake up, wash up, eat breakfast, go to school, pretend to have conversations which people would forget in the next minute, try not to externally display her boredom, go home, rush through homework, jump to anime and manga like a starved dog leaping at scraps, let the sugar rush carry her until the wee hours of the night, fall asleep.

Rinse, repeat.

She’d gotten used to pulling such all-nighters regularly. For better or for worse, she had no idea.

If she was honest? It was nice that the storyboarders had given her a routine to carry out. Could this be like an anime, as she always had in mind, or a game? Depended on which one bothered fleshing out its background characters.

However, the extent of this was a bit… questionable for either of those mediums. Maybe a manga would fit in better… hmm. It was an interesting, trivial little thought to entertain.

Getting back to the main subject, the bottom line was that she hadn’t been expecting anything to change in her life. In fact, if anything  _ had  _ changed in her life, she would have been pissed.

However, high school had taken her expectations and eviscerated them, before hanging the remains upside down. Technically, it wasn’t really high school itself, per se. It was one person alone who had single-handedly forced her priorities to turn upside down and inside out, in that order.

Kaede Akamatsu.

Tsumugi had expected many things when she had first entered the doors of her high school, but almost running into a goddess first thing in the morning hadn’t been one of them. It had all started when someone had barged into her like some sort of living bludgeon, running like a mad bull chasing a red cape.

She had fully expected to fall face-first onto the floor without any fanfare. Things like that didn’t happen very often, but when they did, they usually resulted in minimal damage. Minimal  _ physical  _ damage, anyway. In her mind, she’d continue stewing over the fact that, yes, she had been felled like an anime character would normally be, without the bonus of fanservice, or someone to help her up.

Except when, inches away from the floor, someone caught her. And that wasn’t the only thing the person had done, oh no. The person had helped her up, helped her get her things in order, and yelled a small warning at whoever the hell had knocked her down.

Tsumugi had, frankly, felt as if she was in shock.

Someone had…  _ noticed  _ her? That fact and that fact alone had her shell-shocked, and when she had gotten over her mental reeling, looking up at her savior had almost given her a heart attack.

Bright, long blonde hair. Light lavender purple eyes. A creamy complexion, and an absolutely beautiful outfit consisting of white, light pink and dark purple. And to top it off, pink sparkles hovering over her form, settling all over her, making her look like a heroine who had just saved a damsel in distress.

That had been her first impression of Kaede Akamatsu. Beautiful. Caring. And oh so  _ colorful _ .

She had almost forgotten what a person would look like without that miserably ever-present gray filter hanging over the world like a choking, wet sheet.

They had had a short conversation that day. If you could call Kaede’s normal-sounding discourse combined with her own awestruck babbling a  _ conversation _ , at the very least. She didn;t remember what she had said at all, but she remembere every single word that Kaede had.

_ “Are you okay?” _

_ “Sorry about that; that person has a habit of running in the halls…” _

_ “Mm hmm! It’s honestly a miracle they haven’t hurt anyone else with their little habit.”  _

_ “You’re sure you feel alright? You look a little dazed…”  _

_ “Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?” _

_ “No? You’re sure?”  _

_ “Ah, that’s good.” _

_ “Oh! You’re a freshman too? That’s great! Who knows, we might have classes together!”  _

_ “What’s your name? My name is Kaede Akamatsu.” _

Somehow, she had managed to keep some semblance of functioning, and had managed to stumble over her sentences enough in order to keep up with it. In the end, however, she had managed to end up staring after Kaede like a fool, watching her leave.

She had no idea how long she spent tracking Kaede through the crowd, watching the pink sparkles trail behind her as she walked, tracking her beautiful, colorful form effortlessly moving through the miserable, bland mass of people.

She had fallen for Kaede so hard and fast that it was almost laughable. Badly-written shoujo anime had nothing on her by that point, if she was truthful with herself.

However, it wasn’t as if she was ashamed of that fact. On the contrary, she was completely fine with it.

When she had found out that she and Kaede shared three classes together, she had almost dropped all semblance of decency and screamed for joy. Only the fact that that action had a chance of having ramifications which could get her sent home and prevent her from seeing Kaede for the rest of that day kept her silent.

And from there, her little obsession had flourished.

She began spending a little time observing Kaede as discreetly as possible in the classes they shared, observing how she interacted with everyone else. In spite of herself, she’d had to actually start committing the names of her classmates to memory in order to keep her short conversations with Kaede afloat.

She was such a nice person who loved talking about how nice people were, the things she might have had in common with them, the way they acted, and all sorts of things. Tsumugi was forced to pay attention to everyone else, and not only keep their names in mind, but their interests. 

It was something that she would never have ever considered doing before, but… she had learned very quickly that when it came to Kaede, to be able to at least stay in regular semi-contact with her, she needed to change a few of her long-term habits and behaviors.

Socializing included, unfortunately.

However, Kaede was more than worth all of the small inconveniences, so Tsumugi held herself back from complaining, and painstakingly carved out time slots in her once pristine schedule in order to fully achieve the intent of the charade.

Nothing done for Kaede could be half-done, after all.

She began…  _ talking  _ to other people that Kaede seemed to like. They might have knowledge of things that Kaede liked, so even though the process might be painful, it was still worth it to be able to add some tiny amount of substance to whatever conversations she and Kaede could have.

So she swallowed her pride and started talking a little bit to her classmates. She was sure that their first thoughts of her were “Who does this background character think she is?” or “Who the fuck is this?” Not like she could blame them. 

However, to her surprise, they seemed to be accepting of her less-than-stellar conversational skills. Overly so, in fact. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, some of them had ulterior motives, seeing how enthusiastic some of them seemed to be during conversations. It was ridiculous; here she was, trying to discreetly pry information out of them, and there they were, making conversation on everything apart from the topic that they were supposed to be talking about.

Why couldn’t life be like visual novel games? She’d given them all the correct cues; would it be so fucking hard for them to give the correct output?

If this life really was some sort of story, Tsumugi was convinced that the writer was demented. Possibly a little sadistic as well. As soon as she’d decided to take charge of what little life had given her, the world seemed to completely veer off of its normal course. 

It was only fitting that when the background character began lusting after the main character and started going wildly off-script in order to at least try to become a familiar barely-familiar friend, while continuing to harbor wild dreams of becoming a love interest.

It was karma, she assumed.

And as such, she had flowed with it as best as she could. Instead of cutting them off and trying to forcefully push the conversation back to what it was supposed to have been, she traversed the wreckage and tried to gain intel out of that. 

She was sure that she’d mentally categorized over thirteen dozen little things about her classmates, as well as some random people who also attended the school that her informants, or as they seemed to think,  _ friends _ had introduced her to.

It was hard work, interacting with people this way. She felt as if she was wearing some sort of rubbery mask over her face, a mask that twisted her every miniscule facial expression into something comical. As she talked with them, she could feel her lips moving as she spoke, flapping like useless pieces of rubber while her tongue and teeth acted like cardboard fixtures.

She felt like a puppet that someone was hijacking when she had to interact with them. But they let her talk to Kaede more frequently, and get closer to her, so it was a good trade-off, she assumed.

Her interactions with Kaede had been nothing short of fantastic, always leaving her feeling excited and giddy and feeling as if she could keel over and vomit rainbows and other cute things if she so wanted. She felt like the bubbles of carbonated soda, rushing upwards, rushing as if her life depended on it, waiting for the satisfying release of popping, and letting out the delicious flavor onto someone’s tongue.

She knew that, logically, no person could be this awesome with no strings attached. It could happen, but it was a rarity, and it could be considered completely unreal and delusional at the best of times. 

However, Tsumugi knew at least one thing in this world, and it was that the sparkles did  **_not_ ** lie.

She didn’t know what they represented, but she knew that everything else they had encompassed so far was something that brought joy to her, something that should shatter her life if it was to be forcefully extracted from the place it had in her life. And as such, she was more than sure that Kaede followed the same rule.

Kaede was the most gorgeous, most intelligent and most kind and caring person Tsumugi had ever encountered in her life. Unlike everyone else, when their conversations meandered away from other people and onto other topics about things they had in common, Tsumugi inwardly rejoiced. She would be learning more about the girl that she was completely and utterly infatuated with, and as far as she was concerned, there was nothing better to do in life.

Their conversations were absolutely magical. Kaede seemed to know everything about her: what anime and manga she liked, what fansites she visited most often, and a million and one little things that she was sure nobody had even bothered to ask her. And some of these things came without prompting on her end! It was almost as if Kaede had some degree of omniscience, knowing what she liked, right at the peak of her adoration for the subject.

It made her so, so happy that she often devolved into nothing but a raving fangirl, talking about everything that had happened until the present, putting forth her own theories about what could happen next, and practically frothing at the mouth about how much she  _ absolutely loved  _ the series she was blathering on about. In hindsight, it should have been embarassing, but with how Kaede was able to respond in kind, and actually keep track of what she was saying, things that other people would have considered major embarrassments were some of her fondest memories.

That wasn’t to say that she blabbered about  _ herself  _ and the things  _ she  _ liked all the time. Oh  **_no_ ** .

There was a phenomenon known as “ _ social media stalking _ ” where an individual routinely looked up the social media accounts of a person that they liked, to an obsessive degree. There were occasional news reports on “ _ extreme behaviors _ ” which had been preceded by things such as that, as well as actual real-life stalking.

Tsumugi was too cowardly for that last part, she had to admit it to herself. But the former? That was something that was well within her line of expertise, seeing how much time she spent online.

It had taken a few sessions of amateur spying, but she’d managed to discover most of Kaede’s social media accounts, and begin dissecting them as quickly as possible, trying to find out the things Kaede liked and enjoyed. 

It had become something else which cut into her anime and manga time, and unlike socializing, it was something she enjoyed. Looking over Kaede’s socil media, she had found out a lot about the girl that one wouldn’t be able to tell at first glance.

For one, she was a prodigy at playing the piano, having gotten several awards at competitions for her expert playing. And she loved classical music a lot! As in, a  _ lot.  _ Tsumugi had giggled over more than one conversation Kaede had had with some people, trying to convert them to the side of classical music. 

The arguments had been so convincing, that she had started listening to classical music a little bit, in between all of the anime themes and Vocaloid. Surprisingly, she had liked it, and before long, her online playlists had gotten to be rather… eccentric.

(She was lucky that she didn’t share her playlists with anyone; one second there would be peaceful classical music acting as a fantastic fuel for quiet studying, and the next, the alarming sounds of Death metal would assault one’s senses, before quieting down to anime themes and Vocaloid.)

(For her, she had memorized the places where the sudden rises and drops of the music occurred, and she’d learned to flow with them seamlessly. The classical music breaks actually helped her to calm down if she was honest.) 

(And imagine, if she hadn’t thought to start stalking Kaede’s social media and obsessively scroll through everything she posted it, dissecting and nearly committing to memory every little favorite, every little cute attached comment to another person’s posts and every random little post about something or other that had occurred at some point in her life, she wouldn’t have discovered this little music niche!)

(Thank goodness she hadn’t been stupid and had actually been proactive! As proactive as she could get, anyway.)

Hours upon hours of scrolling through Kaede’s posts had yielded other things, as well. For instance, from those, she knew that Kaede was friends with the school’s biggest mystery, the school’s best athlete (who apparently didn’t bribe his way to good grades) and the school’s second most overbearing, parent-like, rule-abiding person.

How their little friend group functioned, she had no idea. All she knew was that she had to tolerate them as best as he could, and abide by the school’s social chain. So no matter how little she liked it, she had to tolerate it as best as she could.

It wasn’t as if she could actually  _ do  _ anything, anyway. She was probably one of many dozens of Kaede’s admirers who futilely tried to get close to her, wishing for her presence like a starving animal craved even the smallest scrap of food.

It wasn’t like she was different or outstanding because of what she had been doing, even if it had made her break out of her previous monotony and strive for something outside the colorful, fictional worlds of anime and manga.

Some things that changed a person’s life could turn out to be a run of the mill event for a lot of other people. No matter how vast the change was, it was often completely any utterly baseless when the reason was compared to the lives of everyone else.

Tsumugi had accepted that.

She had accepted that she, as a former aspiring hikkikomori, wasn’t even meant to be on Kaede’s distant friend radar, thoughtless of potential girlfriend material. 

However, lately, she’d seen a few changes in the way some of her informants - she couldn’t really bring herself to call them “friends” in her mind, really - had been acting. They hadn’t been bothering her as much any more, and she actually had some space to breathe. It was nice; she had started to need them less and less ever since she’d started stalking Kaede’s social media accounts.

Before this development, they had started to become a little… needless. However, she had to keep up the minimal interaction with them in order to preserve what little niche of personality she had established for herself. It had started getting tiring tather lately, and she’d started wishing that they would back off a little bit. Some might say that she was reverting back to her old hikkikomori self, now that she had a way to track Kaede’s actions as best as she could without direct human contact. She personally felt like they had been starting to overstay their welcome.

She really just wanted a break from them so that she could quietly dote over Kaede more, looking at how the sparkles made Kaede look ever-so-slightly ethereally beautiful, melding beautifully with Kaede’s wonderful personality.

And lately, as if by some telepathic miracle, her informants - “friends” indeed - seemed to have gotten the hint. They didn’t bother her as much anymore, and she had more time to observe Kaede and feel grateful that she’d even been noticed.

Not only that, but Kaede had started talking to her a lot more, particularly after the sprinkler incident. Tsumugi was a hundred and ten percent sure that she could recall Kaede’s attention towards her starting to rise quickly. She eould be lying to herself if the mere thought of that hadn’t made her heart start racing for joy when she’d noticed.

As Kaede had started talking to her more, their conversations had started lasting longer, and Tsumugi could swear that they had started becoming closer quite quickly. It was almost stupefying i]for Tsumugi to realize just how well they were getting along now, without any distractions to take her attention away from Kaede.

It was wonderful, and Tsumugi honestly didn’t want it any other way. 

It was nice for her to be able to get her lunch from the cafeteria and go to one of her secluded little hideaways and be able to savor the fact that within a few minutes, kaede would come over and talk to her a little more.

It honestly made her feel special if she said so herself. 

In fact… as shameful as it was, Tsumugi was really starting to consider confessing. Logically, there was no real reason behind this, and with how their friendship had recently bloomed, it might be a bad idea which could potentially put their entire friendship in jeopardy.

She didn’t want that.

Yet, it was increasingly seeming like the only option for her to take.

She couldn’t just use some sort of anonymous message board to air her views, because she was sure that this crush would not; no,  _ could not  _ wear off quickly, as most so-called puppy love crushes did.

The pink sparkles had practically sealed her fate the moment she had seen them around Kaede. She knew that if she was stupid enough to do something that could drive Kaede away, that her life would be knocked completely and utterly out of order. She would probably become a miserable emotional wreck, and her life would grind to a halt.

She knew, deep inside of her, that she would be utterly obliviated if she jeopardized this friendship, even as she wanted it to become something more.

There was no chance of Kaede seeing her affections as more than misplaced puppy love. She was almost completely sure of it. Kaede probably saw her as a shy friend who was a big weeaboo that could be marginally tolerable at the best of times, or something similar.

Even with that knowledge, the urge to confess was building up like a pile of precariously-balanced playing cards. One wrong move and the confession would pour out like the ink of a writer half-mad on the power of coffee writing some sort of half-nonsense story at three am in the morning.

She didn’t know what to do.

She could confess, and possibly put the friendship she treasured so much in jeopardy.

Or she could hold her feelings back, hoping and praying that Kaede didn’t find someone who she actually liked and wanted to be with.

Tsumugi knew very well that it would be impossible for Kaede to see her as anything but a friend.

And she hated fate for deciding that Kaede was something she couldn’t live without.

She also hated her mind for not only taking that to heart, but going absolutely batshit insane over it.

She didn’t know what to do.

And all she could do, trapped in a self-made cage of fearful indecisiveness, was wait.

…

…

She didn’t know if she would be able to survive it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned out... a bit longer than I expected, if I'm being honest. I'm just hoping that this seems cohesive...

**CHAPTER THREE**

To say that Kaede Akamatsu was worried would be a dreadful understatement.

To put things in the proper perspective, she was absolutely, positively panicked.

For once in her high school life, things seemed to be out of the bounds of her control, and she was not liking. Not a single bit. The icing on this unlucky cake was that it wasn’t a good idea for her to show worry openly. After all, her reputation was solid, and the last thing she needed right now was a bunch of pesky rumors starting to shake her image.

(Not that it wouldn’t be absolutely, positively shattered if any of her less… charitable dealings were found out, but that was beside the point.)

She was worried about Tsumugi. Very, very worried.

On the first day of high school, she’d saved a pretty blue-haired girl from falling. She had looked a little more rattled than she should have, unless she’d been shoved harder than anticipated, but she turned out to be alright. A little shy, maybe a little starstruck, but generally alright.

Kaede had wanted to keep an eye on her, because she seemed a little out of her depth in this particular high school. That, and the definite cuteness factor had been very persuading. So imagine her shock when she’d contacted her usual information hunter only to find out that next to nothing about this girl was known, even in the less savory gossip circles.

Tsumugi Shirogane had initially been a complete and utter mystery to Kaede. And for someone like her to even have a mystery to solve in the first place was an oddity.

When the circumstances of your birth ensured that from an early age, you were able to learn about the different ways one could turn the tides of assorted social situations in your favor, you usually wanted to stay on top of those situations.

That translated into a lot of quiet bargaining behind-the-scenes in order to make sure that nothing ever escaped her notice. She didn’t have some sort of all-powerful grip on the social situation for the entire school, but she kept a tight watch over everything that could possibly impact her.

A little selfish, it would seem, but it had proven to be a lifesaver for someone else on a few occasions. Information that could save someone’s name from getting plunged into the depths of the Earth, or make sure that someone who didn’t deserve their status was drop-kicked from their high horse right into a pile of manure, was right at her fingertips. However, she wasn’t a _complete_ jackass; she didn’t hoard the information when it was needed by someone else. Some anonymous communication or a little bit of talking to the right people could make sure that the right thing wasn’t cut short by unfavorable circumstances.

However, that didn’t mean that she gave out _all_ of the information she got.

It was something that she was apathetic towards doing, but one that had to be done in order to stay safe in the cutthroat nature of society she had been born into.

Being born into a world that had nearly killed itself was something that most people seemingly took for granted. However, aspiring social climbers or people who had gained positions of considerable power and authority knew this all too well.

It was just her luck to have been born into one of those families. Luckily enough for her, they were in a comfortable position on the social food chain: not high enough to be targeted by a bunch of greedy lunatics who would do all sorts of unspeakable things to keep their ill-gotten positions and now low enough to be counted as insignificant.

Her parents had taught her a lot about all of these things. It was a bit of an oddity, seeing how many people her age seemed to be either completely ignorant of this, or seemed to not care about it at all.

(Excluding those who seemed to be flexing their own skills as secretly as they could, like herself. It was surprising what high schoolers could achieve when they put their minds to it, if she was honest.)

They had started to get very particular about it after she had started participating in competitions and honing her piano skills to a needle-sharp point. She still didn’t have much idea why they had even bothered, since they were in no danger of being yanked out of their position and getting usurped.

However, the skills they had taught her had turned out to be very useful. The problem was that she was ninety-eight percent sure that they wouldn’t be happy with her if they found out the way she was utilizing the skills they had taught her.

Those skills were meant to assist her in covering up things that she did, to frame others, to metaphorically strangle them until they had given up all of the information they had in strangled gasps and choked words, then discard of them discreetly.

It wasn’t like she had not chosen to use the skills for her own gain; no. She was using them to both scout out information on and protect someone who would otherwise be overlooked as useless to the plans of any sane person.

It wasn’t like “sane” could describe most people in the high-ranking families, anyway, if some of the half-whispered remnants of conversations she had accidentally eavesdropped on. It was unsurprising. What could a broken world yield, but broken people?

She wasn’ saying that she was whole, either. Far from it.

From what she’d been able to gauge from observing and interacting with people, it wasn’t normal for a person to find out that there was one - _one_ \- person their near omniscient pool of knowledge couldn’t latch onto, and immediately become obsessed with finding out what secrets, or lack thereof, that the person held.

It was even more unnatural for someone to start digging for information on the person, and suddenly become completely and utterly infatuated with them after uncovering things that most people would call completely and utterly plain and unexciting.

For her, however, it was exciting.

Someone who didn’t hide behind useless layers of fake happiness, who didn’t cake all sorts of useless personalities onto themselves in order to hide their true selves, someone who was so truly low-ranked and unnoticeable that they could act how they liked without any unneeded hinderances.

Tsumugi Shirogane.

_Tsumugi Shirogane._

**_Tsumugi Shirogane._ **

Just repeating the name of her love, whether outwardly or in her head, made her heart race and her mind conjure up everything she knew about her.

~~~

_Tsumugi Shirogane_

**_Date of Birth:_ ** _August 15_

**_Age:_ ** _17_

**_Height:_ ** _5’9”_

**_Likes:_ ** _Anime, Manga, Fanworks, Social media where she could find communities related to her interests, Other people minding their own business, Quiet places, Staying by herself, Places with good WiFi connections and Being by herself._

**_Dislikes:_ ** _Having to go out, Disorderly queues, Nosy people, Having to interact with people, School in general, Being noticed by people she doesn’t line and Generally having to leave her home._

**_Personality:_ ** _She was what most people would call a budding hikkikomori or NEET. Not like anyone could blame her; real life often switched between mind-numbingly boring and unbearably full of activity._

**_Other:_ ** _However, in Tsumugi’s case, it tended more towards the former. Her parents were somewhat below her parents in social status; in fact, at one point they were barely able to cling to their high-society status. However, they had slowly been able to turn that around, through an obsessive amount of work. Even though their ranks were more secure than they had been earlier, they seemed determined to try and climb up a system that was ready to boot them out at any time._

_As a result of this, they often left Tsumugi on her own without much real contact and supervision. That had resulted in a seemingly heavy amount of apathy and general disdain for interacting with people in real life._

_In fact, the interacted so little with others, most people didn’t seem to know who she was. Special attention would need to be given to her for them to notice her, even when she was in full view of them. “Odd” was a word that could be used to describe that phenomenon, but personally, Kaede found it absolutely stupid._

_People seemed to be so preoccupied with looking for the outstanding, whether outstandingly good or outstandingly awful, that they seemed to unconsciously skim over the ordinary. It was a stupid way to act, and Kaede had initially been tempted to verbally flay some of her informants._

_It was only after she’d managed to get them to at least discover Tsumugi’s social media accounts and monitor what she did - a task which had been like squeezing blood from a stone, mind you - that she’d decided to give them a break. They had done a good job, despite it taking an obscene amount of time to do so._

_Tsumugi was surprisingly active online, participating heavily in online fan events surrounding her favorite anime and manga series. It was to a point that Kaede had initially found herself surprised s to how Tsumugi seemed to maintain a normal sleep schedule and good grades. Even so, it hadn’t stopped Kaede from looking into the things that Tsumugi loved so much._

_She could definitely see the appeal._

_The genres could vary from amazingly childish and cute to bone-chillingly desolate all the way to stupefyingly close to real life. No matter what, they were often a pleasurable escape from the constant train wreck that most people called real life. It was so, so easy to get carried away with such lively characters that you temporarily forgot about real, living human beings._

_Surprisingly enough, it wasn't as scary or horrific as it sounded. Kaede could definitely see why Tsumugi didn't bother with people, and she was sure that she could predict the process by which it happened._

_With so much time on her own and so little time for meaningful human interaction, it was obvious that Tsumugi would jump into anything that at least simulated human contact - her strong online presence on fan-centered message boards and other assorted websites - and latching onto something else that would let her safely discard reality in favor of observing a more pleasant version of life._

_And it so happened that her passion for anime and manga filled that void._

_It was… unsurprising, in a way. Findings something to substitute for real life and interactions when you had no stake in the world around you was a choice most people tended to do, and Tsumugi had chosen one of the more harmless options. All’s well that ends well; unlike most people who were looking to forcefully inject excitement into their lives, she wasn't running a risk of death, ruining her life or permanent injuries._

_In fact, she seemed to look down on people's more…_ extreme _pastimes. Understandable, really. Some people in this world seemed to have been born without the required capacity for common sense and the internet, with all of its needless “suggestions” and “challenges” wasn't helping._

_From near-completely detaching themselves from this world in order to enjoy fictional ones instead, to losing almost all restraint and throwing themselves into risky situations in order to feel alive, people her age could be another piece of work entirely. She was lucky that most took the middle ground and simply didn't bother having interest in anything apart from a few chosen topics._

_It was how her informants were so diligent at drilling out information, after all._

_A broken world produced broken occupants, so it was nice to know that at least some people in this world had a measure of restraint._

_Tsumugi, in particular, seemed to be a special case. Most people who were as heavily involved in the fandom for various manga and anime like she was often tended to be little more than living speakers relaying whatever events happened in their favorite series inn the daily to a degree that pissed most people off. However, Tsumugi was startlingly quiet._

_From a young age, she'd been a quiet person, not speaking unless spoken to, and speaking as little as possible when she did choose to speak. She's been a bit of an enigma to her classmates and teachers, and luckily, they had respected her wishes and left her alone without bothering her._

_Enter high school, and she had changed._

_She wasn't extremely talkative now, but she had, for some reason, decided to talk to other people more. She was rather shy and soft-spoken but could be almost devastatingly endearing whenever she mentioned things relating to her favorite topics._

_However, initially after discovering that, Kaede has been confused as to why such a thing had happened. Tsumugi’s interests and online activity had remained the same, so for her to spawn a new interest which was so unrelated to her normal ones was a bit odd._

_So like most odd things, she looked into it._

_And she'd been greeted with one of the nicest surprises in her life._

_Not many people could say that their significant other would take it upon themselves to do some of their own amateur information-digging in order to correlate your interests as best as they could. It was something that made Kaede blush like an idiot whenever she thought about it; it was so adorable and endearing all at once that there were times that she couldn't fully stand it._

_And when she'd noticed that Tsumugi had started stalking her on social media as well, she could have sworn that her heart started skipping beats._

_She wasn't much of a romantic, but when someone went out of their way so much to find information about her like this, she really did feel like one of those stupid protagonists in senseless romance dramas._

_Talking to Tsumugi made her feel as if she was floating on a cushion of air. It was so relaxing, not having to look for any potential double meanings and not having to pretend to be interested in what was being talked about. She could talk to Tsumugi all day about something as mundane as the weather and still manage to feel refreshed and happy afterward._

_She loved it whenever Tsumugi smiled. No matter how many times she saw Tsumugi smile, her heart would always seem to freeze for a split second, before her emotions soared. It was so, so hard to keep herself from screaming in happiness whenever she saw that beautiful smile._

_Seeing the starry-eyed, dreamy look on Tsumugi’s face whenever she started talking about a series that she particularly was something that could lift up Kaede's mood no matter what._

_(She couldn't deny that she always felt a small pang of jealousy that the joyous, almost blissful expression wasn't exclusively meant for her.)_

_(Sometimes she had to remind herself that Tsumugi spent at least three to six hours per day looking for information about her. No matter what, that piece of information never failed to make her spirits rise and her body feel jittery. Simply knowing that someone went to the point of near-obsessively looking up and memorizing all sorts of information about her just to be able to talk to her without stumbling into uninteresting conversation topics was something that made Kaede feel both grateful and powerful.)_

_(It also had the advantage of there not being a single dull moment in the beautiful, painfully short periods of time they were able to spend together talking.)_

_Just seeing Tsumugi was something that could boost Kaede's spirits. And why wouldn't it? Tsumugi was beautiful. Stunningly, almost heartbreakingly beautiful. Her long blue hair looked so silky and soft all the time, and Kaede often daydreamed about how it would feel in her hands. Not to mention the fact that Tsumugi was unbearably cute to an extent that it almost wasn't fair! From her dazzling smiles to the_ adorable _way she laughed to how happy she could be talking about her favorite things, Tsumugi was like an endless fountain of cute expressions that Kaede was determined to commit to memory. Her voice was also incredibly relaxing to listen to, and the way she tended to talk quickly whenever she was talking about something she really, really liked was something Kaede found almost ridiculously endearing._

_Tsumugi was just… the most perfect person Kaede had ever known. She almost couldn't believe that this strong, all-consuming obsession could have started from initially trying to fill in a gap in her knowledge._

_She was thankful for whatever forces that led her to meet Tsumugi on that first day of school. If she hadn't found her, Kaede was half-sure that she would have gone crazy from boredom._

_Having someone so gentle, so beautiful, so earnest and so refreshingly genuine to talk to had done a number on Kaede's perception. And before long, she'd caught herself becoming increasingly jealous of Tsumugi talking with other people._

_It wasn't a rational reason for anger, obviously. She and Tsumugi weren't… weren't together yet. That fact still stung Kaede whenever she thought about it, but she knew that it wouldn't be staying that way for long._

_She just needed to find the right time to confess. As well as the right place to do so_

_However, in the meantime, she decided to make things easier for both herself and for Tsumugi, by sending a few polite suggestions to others informing them that it would be nice if they could stay away from Tsumugi a little bit. That way, not only would that have more time to talk, but Kaede wouldn't have to worry too much about other people getting close to Tsumugi, or making her uncomfortable._

_It was a win-win situation for both of them that alleviated unwanted tension and made things a lot easier._

~~~

However, in spite of all that, Kaede couldn't help herself from feeling a little worried about Tsumugi.

Why?

Because, for some inexplicable reason, Tsumugi’s mood had taken a steep drop. She didn't talk as much anymore, and she seemed sad about something. And for the life of her, Kaede hadn't been able to figure out what it was.

Nothing drastic had happened in any of Tsumugi favorite series, and like she'd noted before, Tsumugi wasn't one to suddenly become miserable over something like that so openly.

That narrowed it down to someone had done something to make her sad, but there was no trace of whoever had done so. All of Tsumugi social interactions had been normal up until her mood had plummeted faster than a plane crash. No one would have dared to say something to Tsumugi that would make her upset; not while Kaede was loving and breathing that was for sure. People valued their lives and reputations highly, and they weren't likely to do something that foolish.

Whatever the case, Tsumugi had started spending more time by herself and had actually started avoiding Kaede a little bit, something that had almost broken her heart when she'd noticed.

She couldn't figure out what would have triggered such a change in her behavior, and she couldn't ask Tsumugi about it due to the aforementioned avoidance.

Any normal person would have assumed that Tsumugi might simply have been going through a rough patch in her life and needed some time alone to reconcile with something, but unlike a normal person, Kaede had thoroughly investigated the happenings in Tsumugi’s life for the past few years. Nothing had happened that would have caused this sort of behavior, and not knowing something that was so important to Tsumugi was driving her crazy with worry.

Nothing had happened online, nothing had happened at home, and nothing had happened at school--

Well. That wasn't entirely correct.

The Sprinkler Incident had happened a while ago and shut the school down temporarily. Not only that, but soon after, Kaito and Shuuichi had emerged as the school's newest couple.

(It was sickening how they acted. Like lovesick puppies who couldn't handle being without each other for over four hours at a time.)

(If they weren't hiding away in some corner of the school, doing who knew what, that were flaunting their relationship like a piece of overpriced, gaudy jewelry. There was no in-between. If they weren't walking close to each other, they were jolting hands, kissing, hugging, doing all sorts of couple things.)

_(She wasn't jealous of them. Not at all. She wasn't wishing that she and Tsumugi were together like that already. She wasn't missing Tsumugi so much that it was almost painful, not at all.)_

Kaede had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep from scowling. Or pouting. One of the two; she didn't know which would be more appropriate at this moment.

She wished she knew how to bring up the way she felt with Tsumugi… it was obvious that her feelings were reciprocated - people didn't stalk others and try to dig up every single little bit of information about them for nothing - but she had no idea how she'd be able to put everything properly into words.

In fact, how would she even start the conversation?

_“Hi, Tsumugi, I have something I want to tell you… ever since I first saw you, I've been digging up as much information as I possibly could about you so I could get closer to you and make you happy! And I know what you've been doing, too. I was hoping that maybe… just maybe… that you'd be interested in going on a date with me? Please?”_

Kaede shook her head, trying not to scoff. Even if Tsumugi somehow didn't automatically classify her as a threat to stay away from, if an eavesdropper happened to hear that, it would be game over for both of them.

That was a bad way to introduce it… but how would she be able to bring up the subject well?

_“Hi, Tsumugi, I know that you've been stalking me, but I actually find it rather touching that you took the time to do that, just for little old me! I have to confess that I'm not innocent in that regard either, so… would it be a good idea to ask you or on a date right now?”_

Too corny… and again, would put them both in hot water. She had to think of something else. She started cycling through different potential ways to start the awkward conversation and soon found herself losing track of where she was as she thought about it.

Cutting out ones that were too uncomfortable-sounding or threatening was easy, but finding ones that had the correct amount of nuance was far more difficult.

One after another, the potential starters were trimmed down until she had around five to choose from. Which one would go over the best, was the question.

Maybe this would go over better than she expected… hopefully, she wasn't being too optimistic.

Even so, her mood still lifted at the thought of finally confessing to Tsumugi. She couldn't wait to be able to confess to her.

She was briefly considering going to find where Tsumugi was when the choice was decided for her by an unknown assailant.

Kaede didn't have any chance to react when she was pushed into a door. All she could do was close her eyes and grimace at the harsh impact of her body on the floor.

She could hear the sound of light footsteps running away, and it took all of her energy not to curse after the person they belonged to.

However, a new sound of hurried footsteps came towards her from inside of the room she'd fallen into. Apparently, the door had been open…

“Kaede, are you alright?” It was a beautifully familiar voice which was tinged with worry. “I am so sorry, I should have kept the door closed…”

Tsumugi.

Kaede's eyes shot open just as Tsumugi moved to help her stand up, fretting over her. Kaede was surprised, confused and embarrassed in equal measure, and couldn't bring herself to say anything until Tsumugi had sat her down on a chair and was anxiously asking her if she needed to go to the nurse.

“No, no, I'm fine, please!” was the first thing she found herself capable of saying.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure. I'm so sorry for falling in like that--”

“But you were obviously pushed by someone!”

“Even so, I probably disturbed you! You were probably doing something impor… tant.” Kaede temporarily forgot how to speak as she actually looked up, her gaze alternating between Tsumugi and the desk that she had unsuccessfully been trying to hide behind her.

Kaede had known that Tsumugi had been stalking her social media accounts, but… seeing the evidence of the process was making her heart skip multiple beats.

An open laptop that was currently split-screened, displaying her recent Twitter and Instagram posts, which were obviously getting thoroughly examined. Open next to it was a notebook which, from her admittedly poor vantage point, was absolutely covered in tidbits of information that had been gleaned from said social media sites. Next to the setup was Tsumugi’s phone, with the headphones plugged in, looking as if it had been hurriedly discarded.

The gravelly sound of death metal sounded through the room, breaking any illusion of complete silence.

Despite that, Kaede felt as if she could die happily right at that moment. To other people, such a setup would be horrifying, but to her, it was beautiful. Tsumugi going to this extent when she definitely hadn't had any prior training… it was a testament of devotion that couldn't be taken lightly.

Before she was aware of what she was doing, Kaede found herself walking over and picking up the notebook, leafing through its contents.

Pages upon pages of information, annotated with excited little notes and doodles, filled the notebook. Said notebook was forty pages long, and it was over three-quarters full.

Kaede could feel excitement bubbling up inside her as she read through it, taking in the annotations, which could range from “need to keep this in mind!” to “i’ll keep this in mind” as well as things like “she likes this too?! yay!!!” and “maybe i could try this sometime?”

The doodles were the best part. They ranged from musical notes to little chibis of anime characters, rainbows, smiling suns, and cute fluffy clouds. She personally felt that the best ones were the ones of little versions of herself and Tsumugi together, either holding hands, kissing, or just generally being together.

She'd even found a few little notes like “Tsumugi Shirogane-Akamatsu” or “Tsumugi Akamatsu” written in a few margins, crammed in between other annotations, almost as if Tsumugi had been shy about simply writing them down!

She had _nothing_ to be ashamed about; if anything, it was Kaede who had things to be embarrassed about. More than once had she dared to daydream about their wedding, or even the house they would live in afterward. It would be far away from all of the unnecessarily distracting idiots this society seemed to have in abundance, of course. It would be a nice, isolated place - probably a mansion, and the furniture would be...

And there she went again, daydreaming so far ahead like some sort of lovesick fool. What would people think of her if they knew just how ridiculously smitten she was?

Even so, it's not like anybody could blame her. As far as she was concerned, Tsumugi was the best person who had ever walked - or stumbled - into her life. Speaking of her…

Kaede smiled, turning backward to talk to Tsumugi. Midway, she stopped.

Why did Tsumugi look so afraid…?

“Tsumugi, are you--”

“I'm sorry!” Tsumugi’s eyes were screwed shut, and she was cowering backward, looking as if she was afraid for her very life. She was hugging herself so tightly and bending over so much that Kaede's was scared that she'd suddenly taken ill. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, please forgive me, I couldn't help my--”

“Wait!” Kaede was confused. “I'm not angry!”

“You're not?”

“Not at all! Why would I be angry about this?”

“Why would you _not_ be angry? No normal person _does_ things like this! I'm so, so, sorry!” Tears were building up in Tsumugi’s eyes, and Kaede felt a sharp stab pain in her chest in response.

So much for a glamorous confession.

“Don't be sorry! I've done the same thing, and even worse, Tsumugi! What you're doing isn't making me feel disgusted; on the contrary, it makes me feel happy!”

Tsumugi stared at her with disbelief plastered all over her expression like neon paint. Kaede started to feel sweat beading on her forehead as Tsumugi didn't respond. Had she done the wrong thing? She hadn't been able to think of anything else, since it was a decision made on the fly. But had she effectively jeopardized her their friendship, as well as any chance of them getting together?

She earnestly hoped not, but patience was key in such a delicate situation.

“You… stalked me too?”

Kaede nodded, afraid to speak. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, and it was difficult for her to not look away from Tsumugi in shame.

“Do you like me that much?”

“Of course! You're the best person I've ever met!”

“Really? You're surrounded by all sorts of spectacular people all the time. How would you have enough time for _me_ of all people?”

“The fact that I hang around people doesn't mean that I enjoy interacting with them. In truth, we don't really care that much for each other; it's just for appearances and some other superficial things.”

“Really?”

“Definitely. I know a few people who would prefer to become hermits rather than continue this lifestyle of fake pleasantries.”

“Fake pleasantries? Does that mean that the high class really is cutthroat?”

“To a ridiculous degree, yes. Some of the manga exaggerates it a lot, but there is a stupid amount of baggage that most people have to deal with. It's hard to socialize when you know that people aren't always as nice and genuine as they appear.

“Especially when you've seen people fall from grace thanks to trusting the wrong people.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It is. It's easy to get sick of that sort of behavior when you get used to it. It's why most people look for something new.”

“Something… new?”

“Yeah.”

“Does that mean that I'm--”

“It doesn't mean that at all!” Kaede's heart leaped into her throat at the mere _insinuation_ of that. She would admit that her first reasons for looking into Tsumugi’s business weren't selfless, but to think that of her…! “I've met genuine people before, but I was never able to truly connect with them. They usually didn't last long, for one thing, and for another, I could never find anything in common with them! But when it comes to you, you're different. I don't have to put on some unnecessary façade, and our conversations are things I treasure dearly! You're one of the most interesting and kind people I've ever met, and I'd never just think you were some sort of _temporary interest_!” The last two words left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, and Kaede felt as if she was trapped in a whirlwind of emotions.

She had no idea how she'd be able to properly tell Tsumugi how she felt, if she'd even be able to. She could feel tears gather in her eyes; whose bright idea was it to have her words fail her when she needed them the most?

Then she felt someone hold her hands, and she looked up to see Tsumugi, who was smiling softly.

“It's okay… I understand.”

“You, you do?”

“Yes.”

“But, I mean, I--”

Kaede's scared rambling was stopped right in its tracks when Tsumugi came in for a soft, heartfelt kiss.

Kaede felt as if her brain had spontaneously misfired. She felt as if she was locked in place for the duration of the kiss, and all she could do was stare in shock at Tsumugi after she pulled away, blushing adorably.

“I'd ask if you wanted to be my girlfriend now,” Kaede said, “but after that kiss, I think that would be a stupid question.”

“No question you ever ask is stupid, Kaede! And to answer it, of _course_ I want to be your girlfriend.”

This time, Tsumugi was the one caught off-guard when it came to the kiss. However, she recovered faster than Kaede had.

The kiss deepened so fast that Kaede's head was spinning with delight. One of her hands was held around Tsumugi’s waist, and the other was twined in Tsumugi’s long, soft hair. It was even softer than he'd ever imagined; it felt so nice to hold!

She and Tsumugi’s tongues seemed to dance against each other, exchanging saliva and exploring each other's mouths as deeply as they possibly could. To her light surprise, Tsumugi’s mouth tasted like mint. It was probably the thanks to the chewing gum that she had taken to chewing recently. She'd been switching flavors for a while, and she seemed to have finally settled on the mint flavor.

Kaede could _definitely_ agree with that decision.

Tsumugi’s hands were wrapped around her waist and she was pressing up against Kaede firmly. Kaede leaned forward, increasing the pleasurable sensation as well as deepening the kiss just a little more, starting to grind against Tsumugi a little bit.

A small moan from her girlfriend let her know that she was doing something right. Excitement flared in her chest as her hands started to roam over Tsumugi’s body, trying to make her moan again, louder this time.

It was definitely a little risky, but at this point, she didn't really care. Tsumugi liked her back, they were girlfriends now, and as far as she was concerned, that was the only thing in the world that mattered now.

Then she heard a knock.

Tsumugi jolted out of the kiss, understandably shocked by that. Even so, Kaede couldn't help the small pang of sadness that quickly rushed through her.

Mild irritation replaced the sadness even faster as she turned to glare at the apparently closed door.

When had it even gotten closed? Had Tsumugi closed it while she was helping her up? No matter; that wasn't important right now.

“Who is it?” her voice came out a little rougher than she'd originally intended, but her heart rate was still trying to calm down to its normal rate.

“Just a good Samaritan who took it upon themselves to tell you that lunch is ending soon! You guys might want to save that makeout session for after school!”

Kaede's jaw dropped, and she could feel Tsumugi fall forward a little bit.

She would be able to recognize that saccharine voice anywhere. Kokichi? Why would he… scratch that, how did he know what they were doing?

Unless he'd somehow managed to set them up, this made no sense.

However, if he turned out to be the person who'd pushed her into the room in the first place… she would have a lot to question him about later, if she ever got the chance. He logically shouldn't know about any of this in the first place.

He might have been a well-known informant in the school, but she'd never requested his services before. That could mean that he was working for someone else, or - worst of all available options - had known about all of this from the start.

In that case, there was either a breach in information circles or he'd somehow learned of all of this.

That particular option was concerning.

_RIIIIING!_

Uh oh. That was the bell signifying that lunch had ended.

“We're going to be late to class!”

She and Tsumugi hastily broke away from each other before scrambling to get their things. She had to help Tsumugi get her extra supplies in order as well, before they dashed out of the room as if their shoes had been set on fire.

She'd contemplate over Kokichi's actions later; getting to class early was more important in this situation!

And after that, there would still be another problem to confront.

She and Tsumugi had the next class together, and for the life of her, Kaede had no idea how she'd be able to concentrate on her classwork.


End file.
